


fire

by starlightwalking



Series: all but the brightest [1]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Developing Relationship, F/M, Kiliel Week 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-30 14:11:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12655119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightwalking/pseuds/starlightwalking
Summary: Asleep on the mountainside, Tauriel receives a visitor who is at once unexpected and long-awaited.





	fire

**Author's Note:**

> This is a bit of prequel for a longer fic I have planned. The other fic is going to be about more than just Kíli and Tauriel, but this scene kept coming back to me and I wanted to write it, so I turned it into a Kiliel Week oneshot about my headcanons for their life after BOTFA. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to write something else for this Kiliel Week, but I hope you like this :)

Tauriel woke in the arms of a dwarf.

She froze as she realized that someone held her—then stopped breathing as she recognized the hairy arms, stubbly beard, and solid muscle of a dwarf. Her mind raced as she panicked: who was this? how had they gotten so close to her? why were they here?

Her fingers were frozen, but even so she managed to scrabble at the knives at her belt, only to find she wasn't wearing the belt. She was too trusting of this mountainside to have cast it aside with her dayclothes; how would she free herself from her captor?

Disturbed by her movement, the dwarf readjusted their loose grip. They sighed contentedly in their sleep, nuzzling her shoulder with their chin. "Mmm, Tau," they mumbled. "Don' get up yet..."

At the sound of his voice, Tauriel's memories came flooding back to her in an instant.  _Kíli_. This was  _her_  dwarf—the dwarf who'd opened her eyes and changed her life and perhaps even captured her heart.

But she did not relax. Why was he  _here_ , lying with her in her cot on the mountainside? The last time she'd seen him was from a distance, after the Battle. They'd scarcely made eye contact since then, they'd both been so busy. She didn't remember him being there last night. She didn't feel— _wronged_ , but neither did she feel right about him being there.

But his arms were warm and his sigh was contented. Tauriel was comforted by his presence, despite her uncertainties, and she wanted him there. So she slowly let herself breathe, loosening her tightened muscles. Before long, her eyes drooped again, and she fell back asleep.

* * *

When she woke again, Kíli was no longer wrapped around her. Instead she was carefully tucked in fur blankets she had not placed over herself, perhaps a bit  _too_  warm, even on this chilly winter morn.

Her dwarf was up, cooking something over a small fire. Tauriel's nose twitched; her stomach rumbled. She couldn't remember the last meal she'd had.

She yawned and sat up in her cot. Kíli looked up at her and beamed, his eyes lighting up.

"Tauriel!" he said. "You're awake!"

"Do you always state the obvious?" she inquired as she stretched. The blankets fell off her and she felt the chill of the frosty air sting her front. After a moment, she realized she was wearing naught but her undergarments, and she gasped in horror, diving beneath the blankets again. "Kíli!" she said in a strangled voice, mortified that he had seen her half-exposed. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"What are you—oh," he said. Though she wasn't looking at him, she could almost hear him blushing. "Um. I promise I wasn't ogling you or—taking advantage..."

Tauriel wrapped the blanket around her upper body and let her head peek through the furs. "I believe you." She would have known if he had; besides, he was a good and honorable person. She trusted him despite the briefness of their relationship.

"But—I woke up this morning and I swear I nearly hurt you from the shock!" she exclaimed. "When did you get here?" She was camping on the side of the mountain, away from where the dwarves, elves, and men were still recovering from the Battle. She needed distance from them and all that had happened there, though she had spent much of her time sleeping beneath the stars thinking of Kíli.

"I went looking for you last night," Kíli explained. "My family doesn't expect me back 'til nightfall—I told them I needed some time alone."

"That's why  _I'm_  out here," she said. A strand of fur from the blanket tickled her nose, and she sneezed. "To be alone."

"I needed to see you," he said. He poked at the fire. Tauriel wasn't sure if it was the glowing embers or his own embarrassment that made his cheeks appear reddish in the dawn light. "I found you here last night—you looked so cold, sleeping out here on a cot in the wintertime. So I got out my blankets—well, I was cold too. I hope you didn't mind."

"Elves do not feel the weather the same as mortals," Tauriel said. "We need no fire for warmth, though its light is sacred in its own way. I was not cold." Her heart warmed, touched by his concern, however needless it was. "But...it was alright."

Kíli looked up at her, his dark eyes serious. "We need to talk," he said gravely. "About...whatever this is. Us."

Tauriel's heart beat quickly. Hearing those words made her feel almost faint; she'd never been in love before, but she hadn't imagined it like this. If this truly  _was_  love.

She didn't know how to respond to that, but she was spared by the spitting of the fire. Kíli turned back to tend to his meal, which smelled deliciously of sausage.

Instead of talking, Tauriel reached over to her pack and pulled her clothes out of it. Changing under a blanket was harder than she had anticipated, but it still only took her a few minutes. By then, Kíli had finished with his sausage and now offered some to her.

She took it gratefully. "Mmm," she said after taking a bite. "This is good."

"Thanks." Kíli sat down next to her on the cot. They ate in silence, both hyper-aware of the tension between them and the unanswered questions they had for each other.

"How is Erebor faring?" Tauriel inquired politely, hesitant to actually speak of what she knew she needed to.

"Recovering," Kíli said. "Thorin is still working things out with Bard. And Fíli..." A shadow crossed his face. "He's...not well. He lost a hand, fighting Azog... He's still not woken for longer than a few hours. We are all praying he will live."

Tauriel touched his hand sympathetically. Kíli grasped it, sending shivers up her spine.

"And you?" he asked, not letting go of her hand.

"I have been loitering," she said. "I cannot help much in healing, and I have been banished from Mirkwood, so I may not return there." She sighed. "I don't know if I want to, anyway."

"I am sorry," Kíli murmured. "I—" He cut himself off. "No. Well—maybe."

"What?" she asked.

Kíli looked up at her with hope in his eyes. "You could stay. In Erebor, with me."

Tauriel's heart skipped a beat. "Kíli..." she began.

"Tauriel, I wish to be near you," he said earnestly. "I love you. You know this—I said it on the lakeshore and I mean it still. And I know you love me—you kissed me on Ravenhill, after we slew Bolg. And I do not believe your heart has changed."

"I do love you," she said, and she could scarcely believe her confession. But had she not already confessed, as he said? "But Kíli..."

He drew her near until their foreheads touched. "Tauriel, I want you by my side."

Tauriel felt his warmth and the scratch of his beard on her face, and she could not stop herself from melting into him. Their lips met for the second time, and the chill of the morning faded away. This was soft, gentle, tender: a flickering ember compared to the passionate, blood-stained blazing of their kiss in the midst of battle. Kíli wrapped his fingers in her hair and she felt the muscles in his back, and she grew dizzy with love.

She broke away from him slowly, the anxieties of the morning fled from her heart. She did not let go of him, nor he of her.

"I want to stay with you," she said, her mind made up. "I will. I promise...though it will not be easy."

Kíli beamed and pulled her in again. Tauriel gave him a quick peck, then sighed, rolling away from him to lie on her back in the frosty grass. Kíli followed her, pressing his side against hers and intertwining their fingers.

They sat there for an indeterminable time, watching the dawn turn to day. Tauriel was at peace in her heart, but her mind rushed like a river: how would this work? With he a dwarf and she an elf, there would be all kinds of opposition to their relationship. Where would she stay? Erebor was no place for her, but she wished to stay with Kíli. Could they withstand the trials ahead of them?

But with Kíli so near, Tauriel's worries seemed only trifling. This was right; she knew in her heart, despite all the tragedy of the past weeks, that this was where she was meant to be.

"I feel as if I am changed since the battle," Kíli said softly. "I feel—weary, in my soul and spirit, like I carry the weight of Erebor upon my shoulders. Fíli...I am so worried about him, and I worried about you, too. I do not think I will be the same reckless dwarf I once was, not after..."

"I feel the same," Tauriel murmured. "I am more fearful, more sad. I have lost so much—my home, my family, my friends..." A tear fell from her eye as she remembered the bittersweet parting from Legolas, her dearest friend: he had gone to journey the world, and she did not know when—if ever—she would see him again.

"I was so uncertain about you, Kíli," she said, guilt welling in her heart. "I followed you from my forest because I knew what I wanted, and I knew what I needed to do, but this morning...I almost did not want you here."

"You feel different now?" he asked hesitantly.

"Yes," she said. "That kiss...I know I cannot leave you. Our fates are twined together, like two trees whose roots mingle in the earth. But there is much to overcome."

"Then will you stay in Erebor?" Kíli asked, hope lifting his voice.

"What does your family know of me? Your company of dwarves?" Tauriel shook her head.

"Little," Kíli admitted. "Óin and Bofur and Fíli, they saw us in Lake-town. I'm sure word has spread that we have an affinity for each other; though who believes it, I'm not sure."

"Your uncle would not approve," Tauriel said. "I do not know of anyone who would approve, to be frank. Our love...it is unheard of."

"In these times, it is," Kíli said. "I remember a child's tale, of an elf who stole the hearts of dwarven men and drew them into their forest. 'Twas not a tale with a happy ending, but there is hope. I believe there is."

"I would not fit in Erebor, under all that stone," Tauriel said. "I need to see the sky, walk among the trees."

"Live in Dale, then," Kíli suggested. "I'm sure Bard would appreciate your help in restoring the city—and you'd be close enough to see me. We could keep our love a secret, for a while, and...see how things work out."

"I am not fond of secrets," she said with a frown.

"Then we tell everyone, and stand by each other through the storm to come," Kíli said, his eyes ablaze with the fire Tauriel had seen in him from the beginning. She had her own fire burning within, but she knew it needed to be tempered.

"No...perhaps secrets are necessary, from time to time," she said. She kissed his forehead, murmuring, "and it need not be forever."

Kíli drew her close and kissed her with all his fire, filling Tauriel from head to toe. "But I will need you forever,  _amrâlimê_ ," he whispered, and she could only kiss him again.


End file.
